This invention relates to automobile safety belt restraint harnesses and devices and more particularly to the means for anchoring the ends of seat belts employed in such devices.
It is common practice in the automotive industry to employ safety belt restraint systems having three anchor points, one for the chest belt and two for the lap belt, and means to take up slack developed by a tensionless device to promote use of belts. Typical safety belt systems do not provide any adjustment of the belt end anchors for the adjustable position of the automobile seat and the size of the passenger. A seat belt system which discloses a system for adjusting the tension and the amount of slack in the belt is the filed patent application "Automated Seat Belt Restraint System," Ser. No. 774,952, filed Sept. 11, 1985, assigned to the assignee of this invention.
It would be desirable to be able to adjust the anchor points of a three-point system safety belt since location is important for comfort and fit of belts worn under tension, slight slack or tensionless.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide and disclose a selectively adjustable anchor for one or more of the three anchor points of an otherwise conventional safety belt restraint system.
It is known heretofore to have track mountings for chest belts and door mounted lap belt anchors in socalled "passive systems" where a tape in a track runs the anchor from one end to the other end of the track. An intermediate positively selectable location of an anchor has not been provided in such passive systems since the goal was to move the belt end out of the way of a passenger entering or leaving the vehicle.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a positively movable and locatable anchor means for non-passive type seat belt systems where the belt harness anchor points can be selectively adjustable to the adjustment of the vehicle seat and/or the configuration of its passenger to be restrained.
It is envisioned that the adjustable anchoring slide block assembly disclosed herein may be used in conjunction with the "Automated Seat Belt Restraint System," Ser. No. 774,952, filed Sept. 11, 1985, assigned to assignee of this invention. The seat belt system may have automatic arrangements for adjusting the tension and the amount of slack in the belt to a safe tensionless zone in the safety belt based upon any movement of the anchoring slide block assembly resulting from the activation of the motor due to the inclusion of a motor sensor. The adjustable anchoring device may also be included in a fully or semi-automatic system where the operation of the gear motor will be controlled by electronic logic circuitry.